NEWS

Thank you to everyone who came along to support our coffee morning for the Macular Society during macular disease week. We're delighted to announce that we raised £270, which will go directly into research for macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the UK. We had a great morning and enjoyed lots of cake!

Aves sponsors Peanut!

Whilst taking part in a fund-raising trek to Borneo in 2016, Polly visited the orangutang sanctuary in Sepilok. In the nursery, Polly was lucky enough to meet Peanut, and we're thrilled to tell you that Aves are sponsoring Peanut's care in the sanctuary. Polly has now taken part in 3 fund-raising treks to Peru, Cuba and Borneo and, thanks to your generous donations and support, has raised over £20,000 for the local breast cancer unit in Epping.

OCT at AvesWe are delighted to announce the arrival of the Ocular Coherence Tomographer (OCT), ground-breaking new equipment that enables us to take a 3D retinal scan of your eyes. This allows earlier detection and diagnosis of common eye conditions, such as glaucoma and age related macular degeneration (AMD), as well as offering the ability to monitor existing conditions, such as diabetic eye disease. We recommend an OCT to all adults as part of your routine eye examination, to ensure that your eyes are as healthy as can be. Please request an OCT scan when you book your appointment, or speak to any of our staff for more details.

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)

Until now, we have been able to examine your eyes using a variety of instruments, all of which show us what is going on at the surface of the retina. This has enabled us to detect and diagnose a wide variety of eye conditions such as glaucoma, age related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, to name but a few. OCT is an amazing new piece of technology which allows us to go one step further. In a few seconds, the OCT painlessly scans the back of the eye, providing a view through and beneath the retina. This is particularly useful in detecting the very earliest stages of glaucoma and age related macular degeneration even sooner.

OCT and Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a common eye condition, which for many years has been associated with high pressure in the eye. Many of you will be familiar with the test for eye pressure (either a puff of air on the eye or yellow eye drops and a blue light held close to the eye) and this has sometimes been referred to as the 'glaucoma' test. But detecting glaucoma is much more complicated than simply measuring eye pressure and modern definitions of glaucoma do not even mention eye pressure.

Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes a progressive loss of nerve fibres from the optic nerve and retina, resulting in a gradual loss of vision. This process is usually slow and painless and the loss of vision does not become apparent to the individual until very advanced (when 90% of the nerve fibres have already been lost). Such damage to the optic nerve cannot be repaired and so it is imperative to detect glaucoma at the earliest possible stage so that suitable treatment can be initiated to prevent further visual loss.

The OCT allows us for the first time to actually measure, with incredible accuracy, the thickness of the nerve fibre layer in the retina and optic nerve head. The instrument can then compare this result for any individual with the result for a 'normal' optic nerve to indicate whether nerve fibres have been lost and therefore whether glaucoma may be present. By repeating this measurement at subsequent eye examinations it is possible to detect subtle changes to the nerve fibre layer which may indicate the very earliest sign of glaucoma.

OCT and Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

Many people have heard of the eye condition AMD which causes blurring and / or distortion of the central part of vision, affecting an individual's ability to see detail such as print or people's faces. Public awareness has increased in recent years, partly due to media campaigns by organisations such as the RNIB but also through news coverage of new treatments now available for certain types of AMD. AMD is now the leading cause of blindness in the UK.

It is useful to think of two broad types of AMD; wet and dry. Dry AMD is much more common than wet but thankfully it affects our vision less. There is currently no effective treatment for dry AMD but there are ways of halting or slowing down the progression of it – see our patient information section on AMD. Many people may have signs of dry AMD for many years without any serious effect on their vision.

A minority of people develop wet AMD. This involves the development of abnormal new blood vessels underneath the macula (the central part of the retina) which then (as the name implies) leak fluid into the retina. Over a very short period of time this can cause distortion and severe loss of central vision. In recent years great strides have been made in developing effective treatments for wet AMD.

Whenever we examine your eyes, we are always looking for signs of AMD and particularly any signs that could indicate the presence of wet AMD. The OCT allows us to see underneath the macula, to the area where new blood vessels or fluid leakage may occur. By detecting these signs at a very early stage, treatment can be initiated quickly to stabilise the condition and prevent loss of vision.

So who should have OCT?

We recommend that anyone with specific concerns about glaucoma or AMD, maybe because of family history, has an OCT scan at each visit for an eye examination. We will advise you whether that should be every year or every two years depending on your individual risk factors or concerns.

To get a complete picture of the health of your eyes, we recommend an OCT scan for all adults, particularly anyone over 40 years old, as increasing age is a significant risk factor for both glaucoma and AMD.

Have a look at this YouTube link to see what OCT involves:

YOU SAID IT

"It is not said in jest when I comment that I would only put my trust in your good hands and quite outstanding expertise. There may be cheaper options available but none are, or will ever be considered. Thank you for taking such good care of my health, not only myself but also for that of my sons."